The Magic School Bus in the Rain Forest
Original airdate: November 23rd, 1996
Subject: Rainforest ecology
Focus Student(s): Tim, Dorothy Ann
On Earth Day, Tim is stuck on an assignment and the class has bought a cocoa tree for Ms. Frizzle as a gift. They find that the shipment of cocoa beans that comes with the tree is pithily small, so they decide to go to the rainforest to find out why the tree is not bearing fruit.
Producers Segment
The male producer and Liz are playing cards when the phone rings. During the phone calls, the two make hot cocoa and fudge while the former answers the questions about the episode.
Tropes
- Analogy Backfire: Tim doesn't understand what Phoebe's analogy of squirrels and acorn trees means, thus he can't understand how it symbolizes Earth Day to her.
- And Then What?: When DA plans to simply catch some midge flies and release them in the cocoa plantation, Tim points out that when the midges die then the same problem will occur. They need to find a long-term solution.
- Awesome by Analysis:
- Phoebe notes that Ms. Frizzle's tree is healthy because the flowers are abundant.
- Tim by sweeping the dust away from the grass in the cocoa tree grove reveals that the ground is coated in artificial turf.
- Badass Bookworm: DA, as shown when she tosses away her rainforest guide so as to escape from a runaway pecory when the book doesn't reveal anything. She also confronts Inspector 47 on how his actions have led to the cocoa trees not giving fruit.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: One of the kids in the "Producer" segment refers to Inspector 47 as a cartoon character, referring to both his eccentric personality and the fact that he is literally a cartoon character.
- Brief Accent Imitation: Ms. Frizzle takes on a French accent while reading a letter from Inspector 47 — who has just been promoted to Inspector 22.
- Character Narrator: Dorothy Ann narrates parts of the episode via voiceover.
- Covered in Mud: Tim falls off a low hanging branch into mud.
- "Eureka!" Moment:
- DA on seeing that a bee is too large to fit into the cocoa flowers, realizes that a tiny insect has to pollinate them.
- Tim swats away bugs after falling in the mud and realizes that mud is where the midge flies breed.
- Tim gets two—one when he finally figures out what made the peccaries leave, and when he found out what Earth Day is all about.
- Foreshadowing: Inspector 47 mentions how he got rid of the mud, the peccaries, and the insects. It turns out that the cocoa trees need all that so as to produce cocoa beans.
- French Jerk: Inspector 47. He gets better.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": The class has its usual moments:
- When Inspector 47 catches them in a trap net.
- When the mud makes the bus stick.
- When the peccary stampede targets them and sweeps away DA and Tim.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Inspector 47 gets it when DA shows her Rainforest Investigator license, right when he catches the class.
- Also he gets it when Tim reveals that the artificial turf that 47 planted has led to the cocoa trees not giving fruit.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: This time, no one reacts to Carlos's pun at all, as they're just as genuinely pissed off about the Friz being seemingly ripped off as he is.Carlos: We've "bean" had!
- Produce Pelting: A group of monkeys do this to Carlos when he encounters them.
- Special Guest: Matt Frewer as Inspector 47.
- The Unreveal: "...or my name's not [Dorothy Ann Hudson]!" is cut off by Ms. Frizzle, who refers to her as "Detective DA".
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: By putting down astro-turf grass to get rid of the peccaries, Inspector 47 inadvertently caused the cocoa trees to stop making cocoa beans. Upon learning that he had messed up the balance of nature, he immediately makes things right.
